Wicomico elected officials should take heed to Montgomery County's attempt to legislatively change their Maintenance of Effort requirement.
However, unlike Montgomery's Congressional Delegation - some of our elected representatives were previously employed by the BOE - and may be unwilling to compromise.
But - do not be discouraged Wicomico officials - for there are 139 other House Delegates -(outside our territorial jurisdiction) - that may also be interested in waiving the MOE should you decide to pursue the same course of action that Montgomery County has chosen.
READ ON!
http://mlis.state.md.us/2010rs/billfile/HB0223.htm
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18 comments:
This site has got to be the fastest news source in the entire Country.
I just clicked onto the bill and checked on it and it was just published.
Impressive!
I knew from the inception that there was no way this county among others - including Worcester and Somerset - that could maintain these types of automatic funding increases.
What a tragedy for the average working man and taxpayer. Will these types of travesties ever end.
I sure hope our county council members are reading todays Sbynews post about Montgomery county. They would be fools if they do not follow the same path.
11:05-
Speaking of "travesties" what about Pollitt's plan to buy land at the old Salisbury Mall for $300,000 per acre, when lots at the Centre at Salisbury are on the market for much less.
Please come to the next County Council meeting to protest that madness. Unfortunately the meeting is on a weekday morning.
Ref - 11:19 Post
Speaking of Travesties - it is a sad day when Wicomico residents have to depend on other elected Delegates from other jurisdictions to be performing their work when their own elected officials are instead ignoring the MOE fiasco.
I hope what happened in Mass. will sweep Maryland also.
Read the STEM article in the DT today. Quoted from the Wicomico Board of Education were Gretchen Bogg, coordinator of STEM, and Dave Harner, coordinator of secondary initiatives. STEM is a secondary initiative so why doesn't Harner coordinate it himself? Now we are hiring a coordinator to work for the coordinator. SOMEBODY NEEDS TO QUESTION THE BOARD OF ED!!!
Didn't the county get special permission this year to use some of the BOE's reserve to match the MOE? I remember something about that.
The whole system is broken when it comes to the BOE.
Reference 11:40 Posting
Excellent point. That's a classic example of special interest running things again.
Wicomico officials had better not hold their breath waiting for Conway and Cane to sponsor the legislation. Because it just isn't going to happen.
Wicomico residents are getting exactly what they deserve for allowing them to stay and engrain their own hip pockets.
Wicomico County needs and ELECTED Board of Education.
The seven members of the Board of Ed. need to learn that the central office staff only tells them part of the truth. Sometimes it's a very small part.
I just looked at the WCBOE that the teachers get 6 paid days off for professional days this year. I heard it was 10 but I could only count 6 on calendar including the teachers convention.
Why do teachers need that much paid time off? Can't they get their profession development on weekends or evening? The answer is yes. I think the citizens of this county ought to wise up and demand they don't close the schools for professional days. I know many teachers and they use that time off as personal days. What a crock.
http://www.wcboe.org/resources/documents/09-10ApprovedCalendar.pdf
Folks, please educate yourself on this issue.
Montgomery county services 10x as many students as Wicomico County. Their fiscal support of education ABOVE and beyond maintenance of effort was $420 million dollars over the years 2002-2009. This is compared to $3.9 million for Wicomico county for the same time period. It's an approximation - but not a stretch- to say they funded education at a level 100X our spending for 10x as many students.
Montgomery is one of the counties that originally lobbied for a maintenance of effort law so that the poorer counties in the state would be forced to properly, PROPORTIONALLY, fund public education instead of relying on disproportionate support of more affluent counties. If you think that legislators from across the bay will support legislation to waive maintenance of effort for Wicomico county you are fooling yourself.
Read these articles for more background.
http://www.gazette.net/stories/11202009/polilee173414_32527.shtml
http://maryland-politics.blogspot.com/2009/11/note-on-maintenance-of-effort.html
Reference 7:23 Post
If you think that our legislators won't support getting rid of the maintenance of effort then you are a fool. They have already mobilized as I have it on the highest authority that the request has already been made to MACO - for a united stand to officially suspend maintenance of effort requirements. You already saw a number of MD counties officially file for such exclusion just this past year - when times were not as dire as they are today.
So if you are one of the paid propaganda ministers for the BOE my advise for you is to Shooo.
To: 8:28
AMEN
MOE is bad news all the way around.
The educational school system is not only trying to insulate itself from the economic downturn but also from reality.
8:28
All I'm saying is don't confuse all counties asking for a suspension of maintenance of effort with a "we're in this all together" attitude. As the economy stays bad (or likely gets worse) you can be sure that the counties on the western shore are going to question why a disproportionate percentage of their taxes go to the shore instead of their own county.
The "reality" is that the majority of the western shore - the majority that pays most of the taxes- sees most of us on the Eastern Shore as a bunch of quaint rural chicken farmers and waterman and they don't give two cents about our educational system. As long as the roads are paved well enough to get them to the beach everything over here is dandy.
8:28 You are right. MACo has already lobbied for a waiver for MOE. MOE is bad news. It goes against the principles it's suppose to support. If the counties can't afford it, the state does not give monies. What common sense does that make. It conflicts with itself. Remember: Its all about the children, though.
Anonymous said...
Didn't the county get special permission this year to use some of the BOE's reserve to match the MOE? I remember something about that.
The whole system is broken when it comes to the BOE.
3:24 PM
Yes, the waiver was turned down and they were allowed to use reserve funding from building construction.
Anonymous said...
Folks, please educate yourself on this issue.
Montgomery county services 10x as many students as Wicomico County. Their fiscal support of education ABOVE and beyond maintenance of effort was $420 million dollars over the years 2002-2009. This is compared to $3.9 million for Wicomico county for the same time period. It's an approximation - but not a stretch- to say they funded education at a level 100X our spending for 10x as many students.
Montgomery is one of the counties that originally lobbied for a maintenance of effort law so that the poorer counties in the state would be forced to properly, PROPORTIONALLY, fund public education instead of relying on disproportionate support of more affluent counties. If you think that legislators from across the bay will support legislation to waive maintenance of effort for Wicomico county you are fooling yourself.
Read these articles for more background.
http://www.gazette.net/stories/11202009/polilee173414_32527.shtml
http://maryland-politics.blogspot.com/2009/11/note-on-maintenance-of-effort.html
7:23 PM
Thanks John Fredericksen.... now carry your a$$ back to Minnesota.
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